Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus and an operating method thereof, and particularly to a vacuum processing apparatus constituted by connecting a plurality of vacuum transfer chambers and an operating method suitable for the vacuum processing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
As a prior-art vacuum processing apparatus, the applicant discloses a vacuum processing apparatus, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-138542 (Patent Document 1), provided with first and second vacuum transfer chambers in which a wafer is transferred through the vacuum transfer chambers, first and second vacuum processing vessels connected to each of these vacuum transfer chambers, respectively, a vacuum transfer intermediate chamber capable of accommodating the wafer therein by being connected between the first and second vacuum transfer chambers, a lock chamber having an inside made to communicate and connected to the first vacuum transfer chamber, and a plurality of valves for airtight opening/closing arranged between the first and second vacuum transfer chambers and each of the first and second vacuum processing vessels, the vacuum transfer intermediate chamber vessel, and the lock chamber, and before opening the valve between a processing vessel of the first vacuum processing vessel and the vacuum transfer chamber of the first vacuum transfer chamber or between a processing vessel of the second vacuum processing vessel and the vacuum transfer chamber of the second vacuum transfer chamber, any one of the valves arranged between the first and second vacuum transfer chambers is closed so as to obtain a highly reliable vacuum processing apparatus.
In the aforementioned prior-art technology, if the wafer is processed in each of the processing vessels or in the transfer chamber or is transferred by a vacuum transfer robot, the processing vessel or the transfer chamber in which the wafer is transferred is completely separated and made independent by the valve arranged between that and another processing vessel or the transfer chamber and is configured to be capable of executing pressure control. In the prior-art technology, by employing such configuration, secondary contamination of the apparatus or the wafer due to outflow of an atmosphere from the processing vessel can be prevented.
However, in the aforementioned prior-art technology, the following points are not sufficiently considered, which causes a problem. That is, in a case in which the plurality of vacuum transfer chambers are connected through the intermediate vessel, and while the wafer is transferred, each of the transfer chambers is separated by the valve arranged in the intermediate vessel and controlled so that the plurality of processing vessels do not communicate with each other at the same time, productivity deterioration of the entire apparatus caused by transfer standby time of the wafer due to opening/closing time of the valve arranged between the vacuum transfer chamber and the intermediate vessel is not sufficiently considered, and a production amount per installation area of the vacuum processing apparatus is undermined.
The present invention has an object to provide a method of operating a semiconductor producing apparatus which has high productivity per installation area.